Thank You

This needlepoint from perhaps a hundred years ago has hung just left of our fireplace for a decade
I'd forgotten it was there.
I looked at it this afternoon as if I had seen it for the first time

Do children in school recite this prayer anymore?

 

I wonder

" vee Have Vays of Making You Talk!"

There is a new German vet at the surgery
She is thorough, rather loud and has an odd sense of humour
After she had seen William, she left me standing at the counter in front of a packed waiting room for an age until she had triple checked his med dose, then she surprisingly bellowed a rather loud
" I forgot to tell you that there is a £ 15 charge for your anal gland check! "
" You Checked William's glands not mine" I reminded her as a few of the waiting customers smiled
" Of Course I did!" She said seriously

I'll Never Make A Pirate

I'm making a list!
" Things to do next week"
I've already written fifteen entries on it as I try to dry off after being caught in a rainstorm with the dogs.
Mary as you can see is steaming nicely in the sunny window
From Friday The Prof will be sailing around the slightly stormy waters of Croatia and I shall be at home.
Now before you all reach for your comment boxes to complain of his selfishness, The Prof wanted 
me to go along on this mini adventure in a thirty foot catamaran with all mod cons! But I said no! An
emphatic and resounding NO!
I don't DO sailing! I don't DO boats smaller than the HMS QUEEN MARY and I DON'T DO adventure holidays.
Water.....deep water scares me!
Now if you want to comment about what I am missing by staying home, don't bother!
Being on a small boat in the open sea with a group of sailors is not my thing plain and simple.

Now I am glad that The Prof is going and as I told Mrs Trellis this morning -The break from email and academia will do him the world of good.
I suspect that Mrs Trellis thought I was a tad disloyal not going, that was until I told her that I was 42 years old before I could just about swim a width of a swimming pool without sinking
" what shall you do with yourself?" she asked somewhat incredulously
I told her that I would find a few things to do

I shall miss him but as my list will testify to, I shall not be bored!
I have planned to see a few foreign movies at Theatre Clwyd  and at the Storyhouse in Chester. I have the Flower Show review meeting to sort, a crochet class to attend ( don't laugh) Friends to have lunch with as well as my work leaving bash to go to!
I have a Samaritans shift, workmen to supervise who will give me some quotes on bits and bats and James, a very helpful kitchen designer from Ikea, will be popping in on Wednesday to discuss whether my fantasy kitchen can become a reality. He is bringing his junior colleague Debbie with him and both have been warned that Winnie will be expecting multiple kisses and a fuss!
She does so love visitors!

Luxury catamarans? Who needs em?

It's all go this retirement thing

Well, 24 hours after our Kentish jaunt, My Welsh family, The Prof and I got locked into a strange Mad Scientist's Room and had to solve a myriad of clues in order to set ourselves free.
Typical Wednesday evening fun I hear you say!
And much more fun than watching the recorded Great British Bake off and Game Of Thrones
We had five bright minds in our room and we still bloody well got locked in!
I think The Prof and I slowed things up after we embarked on a fairly lively debate on the positioning of a right lung in a corpse!
( you have to be there) see http://www.lockedin-northwales.com
All great fun!

Our group looked like the strangest version of the usual suspects

Just William

After two messages from the kennel owner stating William was " very low indeed"
I had a heavy heart standing at the kennel gate at 4 pm today.
Mary galloped out like a loon before him and jumped into my arms like a baby, but I only had real eyes for William who followed at a sedate trot with his tail waving slowly from side to side.
He stopped short of me, adjusting his position with his good eye then gently rested his head into my hands in way of a hello.
I could have cried.
I scooped him up And hugged him close and he sat in the car on the way home happily munching on cheap Swedish meatballs bought from the Spar .
When home he slept the contented and safe sleep of an old boy happy to where he was loved.
They break your heart

John Gray's Schooldays

We are almost back to normal.
The Prof is asleep on the couch. William( after a big fuss and multiple swedish Meatballs) is also happily snoozing by the fire. The other dogs are in a heap in the kitchen.
I am waiting for the new Bake Off to start

My cousin Karen sent me this snip when we were away.
I cannot remember the photo being taken at all but it certainly looks like me, in my old brown jumper with the holes at the elbows.

I hated school. I hated everything about it.
I hated that I was shy.
I hated that I was bad at sports.
I hated that I had no goal to go to University
And I hated the miserable 70s styles.

I am the higher one  ( circled)

The Journey Home

We leave Broadstairs very soon. There is a " fast train" from the coast to London then a short walk from the gothic splendour of St Pancras to the dumpy boredom of Euston.
We shall be home by early afternoon.
Yesterday I received a message from the kennels telling me that William was " non too happy" His skin itch seems worse and apparently he looks listless and tired. The kennel owner is more than trust worthy and will discuss him with the her vet ( which incidentally is our vet) and then act accordingly.
Old dogs,! They break your heart. .

postcard From Broadstairs

Blue skies and family catch ups
That seems to be the order of most days at the moment.
The family beach hut is located right by the walkway from the boardwalk in the centre of the photograph, and after we stake out an area of beach in front of it (to keep away the riff raff) we own our own small area of sand free of day trippers from London and the South.
The London trip worked well as Leo enjoyed all of the geekiness of the star wars exhibition at the O2 even though the hordes of middle aged nerds fighting for the best views above the small fourteen year old was  thankfully somewhat lost on him. We caught the clipper back down the Thames, cooled hot feet in the fountains at Trafalgar Square and managed not to lose him in the crowds of a very warm London.
Uncles Christopher and John Brownie points saved!

The highlight of the trip so far was the seagull attack on a large group of buxom South London black women on Broadstairs beach. They had been eating fish and chips with their children and had no prior experience of hungry seaside herring gulls.. One shrieking woman brought the flocks in after one lead gull had snatched a saveloy from her hand and within seconds there were screaming matrons leaping around scattering children and chips with hysterical abandon in what can only be called as an alternative scene of Hitchcock"s The Birds. 
I laughed till I cried.
Today we have been treated to lunch in a swanky eatery in Margate by The Prof's Brother and sister-in-law, then it's a visit to The Turner Centre and then a catch up with Father-in-law before home tomorrow
ps Rachel...I am thinking about you